How much thatch!
Home straight
Flood wall
“It didn’t all go to plan but, on a job this big, it never does”
MICK GOODIE, Flemington Raceway
festivals, with the feature race, the Melbourne Cup, with first prize money of A$5 million (£2.25 million), attracting top horses from across the globe. There are four days of racing over an eight day period, with the Cup itself being staged on the first Tuesday in November. For the city of Melbourne the day is an official public holiday, and a crowd of 120,000 packs into the racecourse whilst millions watch the event on television.
This time last year the course was
undergoing a major refurbishment, which included a complete track rebuild, its first since the racecourse was established 160 years ago.
In issue 13 of our magazine we had a
report from Bruce on Anco’s supply and laying of the 12,400 square metres of turf
required for the new track and other areas around the course. The turf was a mix of kikuyu, ryegrasses and Kentucky bluegrass, meticulously prepared at the turf farm before being cut and trucked into the course. As per the specification of the course owners, the Victorian Racing Club, the turf for the track (10,000 sq m) was supplied in 1.4 x 0.6 metre rolls, and all laid by hand! No big roll or machine laying was allowed. Unsurprisingly, the track turfing alone took in excess of two months. On our walking tour of the track, one of my first questions to Mick and Bruce was whether the track renovation had been free of problems. There was a moment’s hesitation followed by a loud laugh from Mick and an unequivocal “No, it wasn’t.”
“It didn’t all go to plan but, on a job this big, it never does,” he continued. “We had four major contractors working here at the same time. The place looked like a bomb site with mountains of 7mm blue stone and soil profile. One of the issues was doing the work during the Christmas and New Year period, the peak of our summer, with some very hot days. There was tension there sometimes but, in the end, it worked out well.” “The renovation was well overdue,” he added. “The old track was well past its use by date; it was pretty tough maintaining it sometimes. Over the years a lot of work had been done to different sections, so there were different profiles we were trying to work with. When it came down to fertilisers and watering it was, let’s say, challenging, because you
professional tractor powered mowing equipment
Unit 11B, Hill Farm Estate, Irthlingborough Road, Little Addington, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN14 4AS, UK Ph: 01933 652235 Email:
info@trimaxmowers.co.uk
www.trimaxmowers.com mduk1107 67
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115